| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| BaftaBaby |
Posted - 07/11/2008 : 14:28:41
Hancock
Former actor and action director Peter Berg should know better by now that the scenes that link the set-piece beat-em-ups deserve more attention than just moving the camera around aimlessly or joltingly or cutting pointlessly and/or pretentiously between ECU's of the actors.*
And that lack of care about what makes films into stories - that element of humanity and heart - is what's in short supply here.
The premise is really interesting. OK we've seen slices of it before, such as with Spidey's dark side. But here's a superhero that didn't emerge from comic-book DNA, though co-writer Vince Gilligan copped some valid far-fetched principles from his work on the X-Files series [and he's already scripted the forthcoming X-Files film]. But there are so many intriguing ways to go.
John Hancock - not his real name - is blase about his amazine super powers of flight and fight. He's a boozer who cannot die, either from bullets or cirrhosis of the liver, apparently.
When we meet him, crapped out on a bus-bench in downtown LA, he's a rude, crude dude who'll go get the bad-guys sure, but with nary a care for the mess he leaves in his wake. Property damage in the millions and a trail of innocent folk dead and/or bleeding all over the freeway, street, wherever.
Unlike the Lone Ranger, though, this masked man isn't content with riding off into the sunset without a thank you from the grateful populace. Turns out, with a bit of psycho babble from a PR aspirer and later on a prison group therapy session - Hancock wants to be recognised for his heroic actions. He craves it. But hides behind his mask of insoucience and booze.
Cut to the chase - he gets involved with Jason Bateman, the charming, likeable shlub with big PR plans that never quite make it. He saves Bateman's life on the road, stopping one big mo-fo of a train. Bateman makes Hancock his latest project - he knows just what the deadbeat hero needs - a make-over. Now, there's a reality tv idea - round up a panel of clapped out superheroes and invite in the stylists, hair dressers, cosmetic dentists, etiquette coaches. Hello, Channel Four?
So the guy's gotta learn life lessons. In the hands of a great comic writer, this premise might have a screen life. But Gilligan thinks action action action. So we're lured into silly-time with a back story so bizarre even the X-Files would have chucked it into the bin at the first script conference. I ain't giving it away, but I'll tell you Charlize Theron features bigtime.
Smith always delivers. Whatever he's asked to do, no matter how ungrounded, he makes watchable. And Eddie Marsan - late of The Illusionist and Happy-Go-Lucky, is learning that all those years of honing his acting skills are rewarded by Hollywood with underwritten, senseless parts which at least pay the BIG bucks.
Lotsa stuff gets crashed, bashed, and trashed.
*Extreme Close-Ups
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| 15 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Beanmimo |
Posted - 01/27/2009 : 16:32:23
quote:
Originally posted by Salopian
I'll watch it just as soon as I'm not worried about how to pay the rent.
I'll send you over the five pounds so you can rent it out and enjoy the trials and tribulations of Marion Crane and her wonderfully 1950's pointy boobs. |
| Salopian |
Posted - 01/26/2009 : 18:40:27
I'll watch it just as soon as I'm not worried about how to pay the rent. |
| Beanmimo |
Posted - 01/26/2009 : 16:14:27
quote:
Originally posted by Salopian
quote:
Originally posted by Randall
if there is anyone out there who still doesn't know the secrets of PSYCHO, then God bless you, and see it quickly!]
I didn't know it at all till about a year ago, but since then I have seen two or three clues here and I think I know what it is, unfortunately.
Would you just watch it Sal it's a great movie by any standards!!
You've been talking about how you HAVEN'T seen Psycho yet since you have been on this site (approx.)!! |
| Salopian |
Posted - 01/22/2009 : 01:00:09
quote:
Originally posted by Randall
if there is anyone out there who still doesn't know the secrets of PSYCHO, then God bless you, and see it quickly!]
I didn't know it at all till about a year ago, but since then I have seen two or three clues here and I think I know what it is, unfortunately. |
| randall |
Posted - 01/21/2009 : 22:14:53
I thought it minor. Did when I saw the trailer, did when I saw the poster. And try as I might have to save the biggest spoiler for my actual viewing, it wasn't to be: there was just too much conversation in the culture.
[I remember many years ago, we strove to see THE CRYING GAME in a theater b/c we knew we couldn't survive the pop-talk much more: we knew there was a deep dark secret but we didn't know what it was! Likewise, if there is anyone out there who still doesn't know the secrets of PSYCHO, then God bless you, and see it quickly!]
In contrast, this reveal was a very inconsequential part of a very dumb film, but what dragged me down was the degradation that took up the first :30 or so. "With great power comes great responsibility." That's not a comic premise, as Alan Moore's visceral MIRACLEMAN [in its original UK incarnation, I believe it was MARVELMAN] so clearly showed decades before. If you can fuck up a train, you owe fucking reparations to the train company! For me, the filmmakers didn't manage to pull this problem out of the quagmire long enough for me to laugh at it, so there it goes down the drain, and a non-charming Will Smith didn't help at all.
WARNING!!!!! SPOILER ALERT FOR DUMMIES!!!!! DON'T READ ANY FARTHER IF YOU CAN'T IMAGINE HOW THIS FILM ENDS!!!!!
Then his psyche gets fixed and everything's all right. But I'm still not laughing. |
| Salopian |
Posted - 10/05/2008 : 02:02:41
quote:
Originally posted by silly
I gotta say that I'm a bit bummed that my "Charlize: Angel?" review was declined w/o comment.
That's an excellent review. There's no reason for it to be rejected (unless it's a duplicate, in which case the rejection should state that). |
| silly |
Posted - 10/03/2008 : 23:48:26
I gotta say that I'm a bit bummed that my "Charlize: Angel?" review was declined w/o comment. I was pretty proud of this little bit of fluff.
I had submitted this quote from the movie along with it, but no dice.
quote:
Mary Embrey: Gods, angels...Different cultures call us by different names. Now all of a sudden it's superhero.
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| damalc |
Posted - 08/27/2008 : 17:57:58
saw Hancock at my local 2nd-run theater last night. i was surprisingly entertained.
one question that nagged the shit out of me all through the movie was, why wasn't Charlize used more in promoting the film? i had no idea she was in the film. she's an Oscar winner dammit, and a cute one! so i'm sitting in the movie thinking, 'that looks like CT, but it can't be b/c she would have been in commercials or on the poster or something.'
i agree with MBI that it was probly Smith's best performance, and we didn't have to hear, 'AW HELL NO' a single time.
i can't really put my finger on it but 'Hancock' just didn't LOOK like a comic book movie. and that's good. |
| Montgomery |
Posted - 07/24/2008 : 16:00:13
Very true.
EM :) |
| Salopian |
Posted - 07/14/2008 : 19:43:06
Spoiler: Yep, an amnesiac found in a country would not be forced to become stateless. They would be officially treated as being a national. |
| BaftaBaby |
Posted - 07/14/2008 : 19:23:58
quote:
Originally posted by Montgomery
I guess technically he'd be an immigrant of some kind. But aren't we all? His name is Hancock, how much more American can you be? 
EM :)
PMFJI - but I seem to remember him explaining that when he couldn't recall his real name and someone asked him to "put his John Hancock" on some document, that's the name he chose. I must admit all that who was he really stuff and where did he [and the other one] come from stuff was such an unnecessary diversion. I mean if you're going to pay that much attention to it, how come it never gets a pay-off? And now I read that Hellboy 2 is being compared to Hancock, as in "he's like Hancock only red". Yeah right!
Meanwhile, I'm counting the hours till Wall-E! And here's where you can picture me doing several back-flips in succession. And whooping! Whoop! Whoop! 
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| Montgomery |
Posted - 07/14/2008 : 18:36:59
quote:
Originally posted by Salopian
Hancock is American, right? Right? I've just had a review rejected on the basis of (spoiler) his being 3,000 years old. That doesn't stop him being an American, does it? Is Clark Kent not an American?
I guess technically he'd be an immigrant of some kind. But aren't we all? His name is Hancock, how much more American can you be?
EM :) |
| Salopian |
Posted - 07/12/2008 : 15:08:13
Hancock is American, right? Right? I've just had a review rejected on the basis of (spoiler) his being 3,000 years old. That doesn't stop him being an American, does it? Is Clark Kent not an American? |
| Salopian |
Posted - 07/12/2008 : 01:05:35
You just select the colour beige.
Hhmmm, black and white people being opposites seems rather strange to me.
Oppositeness is a very interesting concept, though. Things commonly deemed opposites are normally almost exactly the same in the grand scheme of things, e.g. a man is much more like a woman than a fish, toadstool, rock, survey, tenet etc. etc. |
| Montgomery |
Posted - 07/11/2008 : 22:16:57
quote:
Originally posted by Salopian
I really didn't find there to be a racial subtext in that romance. I know that such decisions are very conservative, but I'm really very surprised to hear about Hitch. I did think when watching Prom Night ( ), "It's rather strange that the black boy and girl are neatly paired up in a couple."
Yup, it's a great performance from Smith; the script really lets him down. He needs to play more assholes.
THIS IS A SPOILER AND I DON"T KNOW HOW TO MAKE IT INVISIBLE, SO DON"T READ ON
Okay, they did talk about how they were supposed to be opposites that attract, therefore, man, woman, white, black.
EM :) |
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